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GPS User Segment: Aviation
Arrival > Departure > Enroute > Landing > Oceanic > Surface

The user segment includes the equipment of the military personnel and civilians who receive GPS signals. Military GPS user equipment has been integrated into fighters, bombers, tankers, helicopters, ships, submarines, tanks, jeeps, and soldiers' equipment. In addition to basic navigation activities, military applications of GPS include target designation, close air support, "smart" weapons, and rendezvous.

With more than 500,000 GPS receivers, the civilian community has its own large and diverse user segment. Surveyors use GPS to save time over standard survey methods. GPS is used by aircraft and ships for enroute navigation and for airport or harbor approaches. GPS tracking systems are used to route and monitor delivery vans and emergency vehicles. In a method called precision farming, GPS is used to monitor and control the application of agricultural fertilizer and pesticides. GPS is available as an in-car navigation aid and is used by hikers and hunters. GPS is also used on the Space Shuttle. Because the GPS user does not need to communicate with the satellite, GPS can serve an unlimited number of users.

The aviation community is using GPS extensively. Aviation navigators, equipped with GPS receivers, use satellites as precise reference points to trilaterate the aircraft's position anywhere on or near the earth. GPS is already providing benefits to aviation users, but relative to its potential, these benefits are just the beginning. The foreseen contributions of GPS to aviation promise to be revolutionary. With air travel nearly doubled in the 21st Century, GPS can provide a cornerstone of the future air traffic management (ATM) system that will maintain high levels of safety, while reducing delays and increasing airway capacity. To promote this future ATM system, the FAA's objective is to establish and maintain a satellite-based navigation capability for all phases of flight.

Satellite navigation is being widely used by aviators throughout the world to overcome many of the deficiencies in today's air traffic infrastructure. With its accurate, continuous, all-weather, three (GPS only) and four (GPS with augmentations) dimensional coverage, satellite navigation offers an initial navigation service that satisfies many of the requirements of users worldwide. Unlike current ground-based equipment, satellite navigation permits accurate aircraft position determination anywhere on or near the surface of the earth.

More specifically, an aggressive exploitation of satellite navigation technologies provides substantial benefits to both the providers of such services in the region, as well as the individual and combined user communities. The implementation of this technology in a country or region provides the following benefits to aviation transportation:

  • Enhanced safety of flight throughout the region
  • Seamless navigation service based on a standardized navigation service and common avionics
  • More efficient, optimized, flexible, and user-preferred route structures
  • Increased system capacity
  • Reduced separation minimums resulting in increased capacity and capabilities
  • Significant savings from shortened flight times and reduced fuel consumption
  • Reduced costs to each individual State while increasing overall benefits to individual States and the entire region
  • Further economies from reduced maintenance and operation of unnecessary ground-based systems
  • Improved ground and cockpit situational awareness
  • Increased landing capacity for aircraft and helicopters

Additionally, the implementation of this technology adds a margin of safety to operations within the expected coverage area by providing four-dimensional positioning, as opposed to the two-dimensional positioning of traditional systems. This reduces accidents by providing a consistent navigation capability that does not change, regardless of location, replacing major portions of current ground-based navigation infrastructures, and simplifying avionics suites. It also offers a precision approach capability at any airport within that region. All aircraft equipped with certified GPS/WAAS receivers have the needed accuracy, integrity, and availability for them to use GPS as a primary navigation aid, and thus experience the benefits of seamless travel.

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GPS/WAAS Information Copyright © 2005 Federal Aviation Administration
For more information, visit gps.faa.gov.

 

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